Dear all,

Another one of my questions.....

I am about to start painting my bathroom. Do I really need to use special
bathroom paint or will any old emulsion suffice?

Chatting in the pub the other night the theory was that if I didn't use
bathroom paint then the moisture in the bathroom would penetrate the
standard emulsion into the plaster and give me possible damp/mould problems.

Has anyone any experience of using either bathroom / standard paint in
bathrooms and what are the effects?

Thanks in advance,

CM.

Charles Middleton wrote:

Dear all,

Another one of my questions.....

I am about to start painting my bathroom. Do I really need to use special
bathroom paint or will any old emulsion suffice?

Chatting in the pub the other night the theory was that if I didn't use
bathroom paint then the moisture in the bathroom would penetrate the
standard emulsion into the plaster and give me possible damp/mould problems.

Has anyone any experience of using either bathroom / standard paint in
bathrooms and what are the effects?

Thanks in advance,

CM.



I used standard cheap magnolia emulsion (which was what was already
there) onto plasterboard and it's been fine. Of course, being
plasterboard it doesn't suffer so badly with condensation problems, and
the bathroom rarely gets very steamy (bath only, no shower) - the d/g
window steams up, the mirror steams up, but never seen any moisture on
the walls/ceiling, and the window's always open a crack to vent the damp
air.

A smaller bathroom is likely to have more problems than a bigger one
(volume of moisture in the available air - reaches saturation point
faster?) IMO, but that's just my opinion. I don't have an extractor fan
but the bathroom is relatively large (you could get four baths into it
though nothing else - two side by side, two turned 90 deg side by side
but on the ends of the original two) - it has the combi boiler in there
too which means it's got some level of heat input off and on other than
the (mostly off) radiator.

Velvet

"Charles Middleton" wrote in message
...
Dear all,

Another one of my questions.....

I am about to start painting my bathroom. Do I really need to use special
bathroom paint or will any old emulsion suffice?

Chatting in the pub the other night the theory was that if I didn't use
bathroom paint then the moisture in the bathroom would penetrate the
standard emulsion into the plaster and give me possible damp/mould
problems.

Has anyone any experience of using either bathroom / standard paint in
bathrooms and what are the effects?

Thanks in advance,

CM.



I just use ordinary trade emulsion. No problems whatsoever.



--
Richard Sampson

email me at
richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

In message , Charles Middleton
writes
Dear all,

Another one of my questions.....

I am about to start painting my bathroom. Do I really need to use special
bathroom paint or will any old emulsion suffice?

Chatting in the pub the other night the theory was that if I didn't use
bathroom paint then the moisture in the bathroom would penetrate the
standard emulsion into the plaster and give me possible damp/mould problems.

Has anyone any experience of using either bathroom / standard paint in
bathrooms and what are the effects?

I used standard vinyl silk emulsion in ours about 4 years ago. It has a
shower in it so plenty of humidity at times. I've never had any problem
with it at all.

I do have a humidity controlled extractor fan as well, but I don't think
that makes any difference to the paint.
--
Chris French, Leeds

Charles Middleton wrote:

I am about to start painting my bathroom. Do I really need to use special
bathroom paint or will any old emulsion suffice?

Chatting in the pub the other night the theory was that if I didn't use
bathroom paint then the moisture in the bathroom would penetrate the
standard emulsion into the plaster and give me possible damp/mould problems.

Has anyone any experience of using either bathroom / standard paint in
bathrooms and what are the effects?

Some years ago, smartening a house up before moving, got some
cheap emulsion, marked as not suitable for kitchens or bathrooms,
but CBA to get anything better. It lost opacity when damp, but
was OK when it dried again.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.

"Charles Middleton" wrote in message
...
Dear all,

Another one of my questions.....

I am about to start painting my bathroom. Do I really need to use special
bathroom paint or will any old emulsion suffice?

Chatting in the pub the other night the theory was that if I didn't use
bathroom paint then the moisture in the bathroom would penetrate the
standard emulsion into the plaster and give me possible damp/mould
problems.

Has anyone any experience of using either bathroom / standard paint in
bathrooms and what are the effects?

Thanks in advance,

CM.


We are in the process oof replacing everything in the bathroom, and also
obviously painting it.

The ceiling was last painted about 4 years ago with standard emulsion and
looks absolutely fine BUT in the areas that I've removed the light fittings
and pull cord for the shower the paint has peeled off relatively easily. My
opinion now is that while everything may look fine on top the adhesion of
the paint to the surface below may not be fully sound. FYI the ceiling had
been newly plastered before the original painting, left to dry for about 3
weeks, and then had a couple of coats of watered down emulsion before
applying the final coat. (the same process was applied to everyother room
in the house with no ill effects noted other than in the bathroom)

Even with the window craked open our bathroom does get pretty steamy fairly
regularly between a couple of showers in the mroning and bathing the kids
in the evening, so this is perhaps an extreme case. A new extractor fan
will help allieviate this problem but I will still be trying out a bathroom
type paint on a the walls that are not tiled this time around.

So while I don't believe that there will be any issues with mould I do have
some reservations about the long term adhesion of standard emulsion in a
moist atmoshere, 90% of the time you may well get away with a standard
paint and all will look fine, or at least on the surface any way :-)

cheers

David

Thanks all for the advice. Ill paint it over with standard emulsion for now.
Its not a big bathroom so if I get problems I can always repaint it. From
looking at the product descriptions it looks like the paint mainly allows
you to wipe it down say it you got some sort of stain on it. Also, thinking
about it, most people don't do the ceilings with bathroom paint and rarely
get any problems with them and this must be where most the steam will
collect.

I've also got an extractor fan and I can open a window to alleviate most of
the steam.

Cheers,

CM.

"Charles Middleton" wrote in message ...


If you have a persistently steamy bathorom, or condensation problems,
then your standard paint is going to go mouldy. If not, no worry.

Regards, NT